On Centre Court at Wimbledon, American Taylor Fritz, the 13th seed, made a remarkable comeback from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev, the 4th seed, 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3.
Both players are fantastic servers, among the very best on tour. For the match, Fritz struck 15 aces and no double faults, while Zverev struck 19 aces and three double faults.
In his press conference, Fritz said he did not change much tactically in the third set onward: “In the first set I was returning really close up, chipping forehands. To be honest, I mean, I can have a lot of success returning a serve wherever. You can stand anywhere. It’s not going to feel great.
“When I backed it up in maybe it was the end of the first or the second, I felt like I was putting more returns in the court. No change really in the third. Change in the second. Felt good. Felt like maybe at some point I could grab a break. The main thing was to just keep holding serve, keep being aggressive.
“Halfway through the first set I was trying to move the ball around a little more. I came out attacking going into his forehand probably a little too much. He was ready for it. He was hitting his forehand really well. I wanted to just move my forehand around a bit more. A big change as well was second set tiebreaker, I played a little safe on some shots thinking he would also play safe. He kind of beat me to the punch.
“My main thing going into the fourth set breaker was to pull the trigger on the shots as soon as I saw the opportunity.”
Fritz was asked what he was most pleased with in his performance: “I mean, obviously I can say kind of sticking with it from two sets down. I feel like I’m always going to do that, especially when I feel like I was playing good tennis.
“I think what I was the most pleased about was my game from the ground, like backhand, forehand. Once we got into the rallies, I felt like I was playing about as good as I could play.”
In Zverev’s press conference, he said of Taylor’s play: “First, obviously great that he came from two sets to love down. Respect.
“I was on one leg today. He is playing great. I think he is also going to be in the semifinals of Wimbledon. I do expect him to win in the quarters.
“But also I do know that the match was not high level. I mean, it wasn’t a particularly great tennis match. It was, like, there wasn’t really long rallies because I couldn’t play long rallies. There wasn’t really physicality.
“Again, it was all coming from me. I just couldn’t do that. So I knew, yeah, credit to him that he came back, but it wasn’t a great tennis match, you know?”
